News flash: I’m now a member of The Darwin Lobby! Or so says the vice-president of the Discovery Institute.

Yes, that’s true, but this is only a note of unintentional humor in a rather distressing piece of news.

Seth Slabaugh at the Muncie Star Press has written a piece on the hiring of intelligent-design (ID) advocate Guillermo Gonzalez in the Physics and Astronomy Department of Ball State University (BSU) in Muncie, Indiana. This department is already under fire for hosting a science course given by professor Eric Hedin, accused of teaching intelligent design (ID) in a public university as well as pushing a Christian point of view on his students. Hedin’s course is currently under review by a committee of professors appointed by BSU’s administration.

Gonzalez, you may recall, was something of an ID cause célèbre when he was denied tenure in 2007 at Iowa State University for failing to produce adequate scholarship. Since Gonzalez was also a vociferous ID advocate, having co-authored the ID book The Privileged Planet and its accompanying video, the Discovery Institute and other backers claimed that Gonzalez was discriminated against for working on ID. But his tenure appeal was denied on the grounds of poor academic performance, and Gonzalez took an untenured position at Grove City College, a small Christian school in Pennsylvania. As Wikipedia notes, Gonzalez is active in several venues for intelligent design:

Gonzalez was a regular contributor to Facts for Faith magazine produced by Reasons To Believe, an old earth creationist group. In addition to his work for the Discovery Institute and International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, he is a researcher for the Biologic Institute, which is funded by the institute for research into intelligent design.

A reader at BSU had informed me that Gonzalez’s name was down for two courses at BSU this fall, but it wasn’t clear whether he was simply doing a teaching stint or had been permanently hired at BSU, Now, according to Slabaugh’s piece in today’s paper, “Ball State hires intelligent design leader to teach astronomy“, the latter is the case. Gonzalez is now on staff as a tenure-track faculty member at BSU:

President Jo Ann Gora approved the hiring of Guiellermo Gonzalez as an assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy on June 12 at a salary of $57,000.

Beginning Aug. 19, Gonzalez will be teaching The Sun and Stars, as well as The Solar System, both introductory astronomy classes.

Slabaugh quotes me on this turn of events, though I’m not keen on his characterization of me as “an atheist.” Is that relevant? If so, why aren’t Hedin and Gonzalez identified by their faith as well, for surely that’s at least as relevant to their activities as to mine?

“Do you see any pattern here?” Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, asked. “I’m wondering … why Ball State’s physics and astronomy department has a penchant for ID (intelligent design) people. This (hiring) is a very unwise move for Ball State, particularly when one of its other astronomy professors, Eric Hedin, is under investigation for teaching ID in an astronomy class. If the university wants to retain any scientific credibility, they should start hiring scientists who will teach real science and not religious apologetics.”

An atheist who claims religion and science are incompatible, Coyne is behind the investigation of Hedin. He complained about Hedin’s class to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“Why would [BSU] hire a person who didn’t get tenure at Iowa State because of his poor academic performance … and then went to a small religious school where I’m not sure he was tenured?” Coyne asked.

The paper also gives a bit of Gonzalez’s history and, unlike previous articles in the paper, at least attempts to show why there is scientific opposition to ID:

Intelligent design creationism is not supported by scientific evidence, according to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which was established when Abraham Lincoln was president to address the government’s need for an independent advisor on scientific matters.“Echoing theological arguments that predate the theory of evolution,” intelligent design supporters “contend that biological organisms must be designed in the same way that a mousetrap or a clock is designed,” NAS reports.

. . . The Des Moines Register reported in 2005 that Gonzalez had said publicly that he wanted to find a graduate student to pursue intelligent design.

After being forced out at ISU, Gonzalez told The Associated Press he had trouble finding another job. He sent about 15 applications to schools around the country.

“I didn’t receive a single invitation for an interview from many of the large public universities, even though I expected to,” he was quoted as saying. “In my opinion, if it hadn’t been for my known stance (on intelligent design), I would have been interviewed.”

Gonzalez finally wound up at Grove City College, a Christian school in Pennsylvania that does not have a tenure track program.

Grove City College has been on the American Association of University Professors’ list of censured administrations (for violations of academic freedom and tenure standards) longer than any other institution — since 1963, AAUP’s Greg Scholtz told The Star Press.

Fifty years on the censured list!

Gonzalez was one of the scientists who appeared in the controversial 2008 documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” It documented the plight of scientists and scholars who dare to question the claims of Darwinian evolution, which the film links to fascism, the Holocaust, communism, atheism, and eugenics. “Expelled: [sic] was denounced as propaganda by The American Association for the Advancement of Science, USA Today, The New York Times and others.

In response to questions about the hiring of Gonzalez, BSU spokeswoman Joan Todd — to whom press inquiries about Hedin and Gonzalez are being funneled — said in a prepared statement: “This is our response. His qualifications are in his cv (curriculum vitae).”

I guess those qualifications, though not sufficient for Iowa State, are good enough for Ball State. I haven’t yet seen the c.v., but BSU sounds awfully defensive.

Among other questions, [Todd] declined to answer whether BSU is seeking to become a research hub for intelligent design. She also declined to respond to Coyne’s comments, including, “Is there some unholy connection between BSU and the Discovery Institute, or is the department of astronomy just sympathetic to intelligent design?”

It probably would have been wiser had Todd admitted that ID is not science and that by no means would BSU try to become an ID research hub. Does BSU want scientific credibility or not?

[Gonzalez] declined comment to The Star Press. But his colleague John West, a political scientist and vice president of Discovery Institute, complained that Coyne is “taking it upon himself to try to dictate the curriculum and now the hiring decisions” of BSU’s department of physics and astronomy.

Coyne belongs to what West calls “the Darwin lobby.” “They don’t believe in academic freedom for anyone who disagrees with them, and they want to win the intellectual debate simply by silencing and intimidating any scholars who differ from them. In this case, Coyne is trying to destroy the careers of people in a discipline where he has no expertise whatsoever. Frankly, this is outrageous.”

I don’t believe in academic freedom for anyone who teaches religiously based woo as science, just as I wouldn’t for someone who taught astrology in a psychology class or homeopathy in medical school. As for my silencing and intimidating IDers, or trying to destroy careers, that’s insane. I have simply pointed out what I see as a violation of the First Amendment in a public university, and a blatant rejection of good standards for teaching science. And as for destroying careers, West is behaving just like an ID advocate: ignoring the facts. I’ve repeatedly said that I don’t think Hedin should be fired, but only that his course be deep-sixed. And I’ve said that BSU should keep an eye on Gonzalez to make sure he doesn’t teach ID in his science classes.

That doesn’t sound like “destroying careers” to me. The Discovery Institute is being a Drama Llama here, trying to set up these guys as martyrs.

But I do chuckle as being identified as a member of The Darwin Lobby. If that’s true, they haven’t yet sent me my membership card!

If you can’t read Slabaugh’s piece since there’s a per-month article limit, his piece also appears in the BoilerStation, apparently the Purdue-University news section of the Journal and Courier paper in Lafayette, Indiana. Like the Star Press, the Journal and Courier is also a Gannett paper.

Here’s an instructive comment on the BoilerStation site by one of Hedin’s students. She admits that Hedin was teaching the class from an intelligent-design viewpoint:

104 Comments

Could it be possible Ball State actually reviewed Gonzalez’s credentials and still hired him? I really feel for the students past and present who have wasted their tuition on this joint. Indiana is starting to smell like the south.

If he teaches a straight science course with no ID, what’s wrong with that?

The 1950s and 1960s saw an anti-Left blacklist that ruined lives. Aren’t you leery that you are starting something similar? I don’t believe in ID. But I also don’t believe in persecuting people. You may well make a martyr of this man.

Have you even been reading this site? I’ve already said that if Gonzalez teaches a straight science course and doesn’t spend most his time working on ID, I have no objection to his hiring. And I’m not sure whether it’s in BSU’s interest as a good science school to hire schools that have rejected candidates for nonperformance.

If you don’t believe in ID, do you think we should just shut up when someone is teaching it to our kids? I don’t think so. And I am not persecuting Hedin or Gonzalez by any means. It’s the newspaper that’s publicizing this: all I did was write a letter to Hedin’s chair and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Surely you think that is justified if you don’t believe in ID.

As for making a martyr of Gonzaelez, I reject that entirely. I am entitled to point out his past, Hedin’s activities, and Ball State’s having science courses with a religious viewpoint.

It seems that you want us all to shut up about ID’s incursion into schools lest we make “martyrs” of its advocates. That’s a recipe for debasing science education.

I find your rhetoric completely out of line. There is no blacklist being contemplated.

Plese read what I write before you level this type of unwarranted accusation.

“I’ve repeatedly said that I don’t think Hedin should be fired, but only that his course be deep-sixed. And I’ve said that BSU should keep an eye on Gonzalez to make sure he doesn’t teach ID in his science classes.”

I think I do see a danger, though. If Jerry keeps this kind of behavior up, it could become a Darwin Lobby Hobby. And that could lead to taking out full-page ads in newspapers across the country. It could get expensive.

As others have pointed out, your comparison of the treatment of Hedin and Gonzalez with those who were blacklisted for their political views is completely specious. Hedin and Gonzalez are pushing a parody of science that is completely discredited. A better comparison would be to say that they are pushing a “scientific” story that is as discredited as Ernst Mach’s rejection of the atomistic view of matter offered by Ludwig Boltzmann in the 19th century. There isn’t a chemist or physicist in the world who isn’t a complete crackpot who would say that Mach was right and Boltzmann was wrong. The proponents of ID are at least as wrong as Mach and any scientist in 2013 who rejects the existence of atoms is, well, not a scientist. The same applies to Hedin and Gonzalez, at least when they are pushing tarted-up creationism.

A research center for ID? WTF would they research, deduction from analogy, confirmation bias, teleology? All of their “theories” are merely retrospective attributions, they make no testable predictions.

Here in the Netherlands, almost any political party has a “scientific institute” (mainly because these institutes receive subsidies). I am wondering what science these institutes actually perform, as science is supposed to be politically neutral (i.e. science should not be steered by ideological interests). In most cases any research they do is aimed at the pursuit of their political agendas.

West may not have intended it as a compliment, but I’d say being a member of the Darwin lobby is a good thing (membership card or not)! Please keep on lobbying in favour of reason and against pseudoscience and woo.

G.Gonzalez: “In my opinion, if it hadn’t been for my known stance (on intelligent design), I would have been interviewed.”

In my opinion, claiming publicly that you are accepting ID as a scientific venture is like asserting publicly that you will lose a lot of time on fruitless pseudo-research. It is not so surprising, then, that (serious) scientific institutions hesitate to hire you.

…and to state publicly that you aren’t getting jobs and specify how many times you’ve been rejected is such a career limiting move! Of course, he was probably doing so in the context of claiming persecution for his ID beliefs thinking he’d influence people to see him as a victim but boy did that back fire!

I cannot, of course, predict what the administration at Ball State will do as a consequence of l’affaire Hedin (and now Gonzalez). But I would not be surprised if the following come to pass: 1) H & G continue as professors of physics; 2) they are both constrained (a bit)in how and what they may teach as science; 3) Ball State spins the matter as a heroic stand for academic freedom; and 4)uses the whole thing as an important brick in the ‘building of their brand.’

Public universities are rapidly becoming only quasi-public. Tax monies for the support of higher education continue to diminish. Schools such as Ball State have to raise tuition and fees every fiscal year to balance budgets. So with the onus of paying more and more on students, administrators tout their campuses as great places in which to ‘experience’ college. Come to Ball State and we’ll ‘teach the big questions’ without forcing you to abandon your family values. Firesign Theatre said it forty years ago: ‘Daddy, where can I get a good deal in a Christian atmosphere?’ The answer today: ‘right here in Muncie, Indiana!’

I find the Darwin Lobby telling. Institutions like the DI are political more than anything else to they figure those “on the other side” must be their political opponents with their own lobby groups.

They just don’t get it or more likely they do get it but want to convince others that there are groups out there trying to force their “opinions” into education so the DI is just trying to do what those others are doing.

They’re capitalizing on a niche. There are sufficient numbers of ignorant people willing to part with $ on this stuff. If the public ever becomes sufficiently educated to quit sending them money, they’ll go away. That’s why getting the education right is important.

Skeptical readers ask us from time to time why books like ‘Heaven Is for Real,’ which chronicles a 4-year-old boy’s near death experience — during which, he told his father, he visited the afterlife and sat on Jesus’ lap — are included on our nonfiction best-seller lists. Our policy is ‘simply that we do not second-guess personal accounts,’ Deborah Hofmann, the senior editor for The Times’s best-seller lists, told me. You might say nonfiction is in the eye of the beholder.”

What if instead he had said that he sat at the feet of Zeus imbibing nectar and ambrosia?

Would the N.Y. Times not have anyone second-guess the “personal account” of a Hedin or Gonzales?

That’s quite the copout. Lots of great fiction is written as a first-person narrative, including Homer and Lovecraft and Richard Bach. Does the Times categorize Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah as nonfiction, I wonder? What about The Call of Cthulhu? Shirley MacLaine’s astral projection guides?

Not in the business of second-guessing personal accounts, my ass. What the fuck good is a journalistic critical reviewer if there’s no critical examination of the content?

I must protest! As president for life of Delta Pi Gamma, the Darwinian Pressure Group, so named by the same Disco Tute West back in 2005 when we successfully pressured Ohio State University to clean out their “intelligent design” creationism infestation, I am shocked and saddened by the total lack of respect (and funding) Delta Pi Gamma has received in the intervening years! Granted, we threatened OSU by suspending funding of the Bill and Harold Athletic Center, Tire Care and Manicure Emporium, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Where is this so-called “Darwinian Lobby” and who’s their ringleader and do they offer a 10% discount at the bar? Inquiring minds want to know! You know what I think? I think West is making the whole thing up. There is no Darwinian Lobby; it’s all fake!

If you want a real pro-evolution fraternity then pledge Delta Pi Gamma today! Applications are still open for the 2013 pledge class.

Do you feel you can think for yourself? It seems you credit yourself with that capability but deny it to Ms. Shoemaker. But arguing with you about this is pointless. When a student feels that a course has helped them to think for themself, I am pleased.

In my experience, Reginald does not tend to assume more than is reasonable for him to know.

Ms. Shoemaker thinks that Idiot Design is a valid scientific understanding of biology, a position that any evolutionary biologist will tell you is as laughably insane as astrology or geocentricism or any of the other long-since-discredited theories of ancient history. That right there demonstrates that she lacks even the most elementary level of understanding of the field, and is profoundly incompetent by definition.

In the quote from Ms. Shoemaker, she does not say that ID is a valid scientific understanding of biology.
If you are going to be supercilious, then at least get your facts straight.
But arguing with you about this is pointless

Exactly why this course is so pernicious. Now this student things that teaching ID as a science course is a good thing because she feels it provided her with an alternative to “standard” science and misses that ID isn’t a science at all and there is no such thing as an alternative to science that belongs in a science classroom.

Might at some point something new come to light that causes us to add another layer on top of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Random Mutation and Natural Selection? Of course — the same has happened in other fields, most notably Physics. But, even then, both Einsteinian and Quantum Mechanics reduce to Newtonian Mechanics at suitable scales. Anything that ever unseats Evolution will have to similarly reduce to regular Darwinian Evolution at familiar scales.

But that’s all purely hypothetical, as there isn’t even an hint of anything that could possibly be so revolutionary, or even the slightest indication that such a revolution is needed.

Next, please figure out the next line of defense for these current strains of drug-resistant gonorrhea that have many of our bench scientists stymied. Only you’re not allowed to use any of the precepts of evolutionary biology.

You can think for yourself, though. See how far that gets you. …but arguing about this with you is pointless.

Or more precisely I should have written there is no scientific alternative to evolution (as Ben says, then it would have replaced what we now know) and I should have said no to ID – ID is also not scientific and does not belong in a science classroom.

GG wrote an “introductory” astronomy book that describes Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon, how a telescope works, etc. About an 8th Grade science book.

He’s also slated to teach “Introductory Astronomy” which is also about Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon and how a telescope works. That’s the level at which GG operates. It’s just 3 credit hours, easy A, filler course.

You don’t get into the “cool stuff” until the upper level courses because you need so much background – advanced physics, calculus, diff eq, chemistry and so forth.

The entry in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for GG is: mostly harmless.

Your right. Small slug like creatures didn’t leave much in the way of evidence behind.

To explain that we refer to Specralian theory.

it’s the theory were because we are not god like beings we all just give up and accept the fact that I SPECTOR567 created them. (sorry I sneezed)

to prove that theory I have several books, that I can cite…. that I wrote, and few quotemines and a lot of jumping around and dodging of other information that doesn’t fit my theory.

Now the scientific establishment from accross the ENTIRE globe is all part of a conspiracy to deny my acedemic freedom on the idea. They want me to do something silly like research.

They don’t understand how spending 75% of my funding on MARKETING and Political lobbying to cater to and popular support is not the same as doing reseach.

My 6 blogs say so.

Afterall If I believe in Spectorial theory and the guy next to me believes it than it must be true and anyone who disagrees is part of the drawin lobby.

Now explain to me why i’m any different from DI?

You may think that the people here are unwilling to listen. That is not true. They just don’t like listening to people who make a living by lying and doing nothing but bad mouth the hard work of others.

If DI did research, spent the time and effort and produced positive results than there wouldn’t be this opposition. Instead they spend there time being politicians and stomping on the hard work of others whil providing NOTHING in return.

I think it’s OK to snark about GG. He’s made himself a public figure by being associated with a real lobby group, the Disco Tute and by the public stink he made about not getting tenure. Boo effing hoo, GG.

The facts are that GG’s research output dropped to zero following his conversion to “intelligent design” creationism and his publishing ceased, he pulled in no funding and had no students. Not exactly tenure material.

But, if you look at other former scientists who traded a career in honest science for a career in dishonest creationism (Behe, Dembski, Meyer, Wells, Sewell, Wise, Lisle, to name a few) they’re all just killing their cycles doing nothing. For example, it’s plausible that both Behe and Dembski could have been heads of their respective departments by now if they hadn’t taken residence in Crankville, and that’s where GG is heading: Hogwash, Indiana.

Iowa State’s Physics and Astronomy department has an outstanding reputation. When Gonzalez was denied tenure in 2007 and cried foul, I had no doubt that one must have a stellar research record to earn that honor.

Ball State’s department on the other hand offers only a research-based MS program, while most of its graduate emphasis appears to be in education. It is easily conceivable that someone not suitable for tenure at ISU would easily be tenurable at BSU.

That said, I still have to wonder, given Hedin and Gonzalez, whether one or more senior P&A faculty are pulling strings to bring ID to BSU.

What we can’t figure out is what your point has to do with the price of tea in China.

You know, I could also make a point that you don’t have a complete genetic analysis of your great-great-great-great-grandmother’s fifth cousin seven times removed. But I’m not sure what would be the point of making that point, any more than I get the point of the point you’re trying to point out.

I think a more disturbing revelation is that my motorcycle shows not fossil evidence whatsoever. It’s like it just appeared out of nowhere with no preceding advances in motorcycle technology. Surely this refutes any and all seemingly proven knowledge of combustion engines, bicycles and quite possibly the wheel!

It shows no history before or after the Roman Republic! Do you think it’s like in The Matrix when the machines take over and fool us into thinking we’re living in a totally different year than it really is?

Holy crap, this is brilliant! You’ve not only found a chart that doesn’t show ancestors prior to the Cambrian fossils, that chart also doesn’t show ancestors prior to the Cambrian fossils. OMG, I finally understand, you’ve found a chart that doesn’t show ancestors prior to the Cambrian fossils. How could I have been so stupid? I’ll now have to search all my charts to see if they also don’t show ancestors prior to the Cambrian fossils.

Some people think that there were pre-Cambrian ancestors for the Cambrian fossils. These charts do not support that idea.

Indeed, those charts aren’t intended to address the question of Precambrian ancestors of Cambrian fossils.

Or are you seriously suggesting that Cambrian life had no ancestors?

I really hope that’s not what you’re trying to suggest, because only a complete and total blithering fucking idiot could possibly be so stupid. I mean, it’d be like suggesting that, because I don’t know who my great-great-great grandfather was, I therefore am an alien lizard monster whom the stork delivered to this flat, flat Earth under a Moon made of green cheese.

Thursday shortly after lunchtime at the dairy processing plant a mile and a half due north of me you can get curds that were milk shortly before breakfast — and it don’t get any greener than that.

I don’t have any other experiences with cheese that fresh so I can’t compare, but I will unhesitatingly recommend Arizona Cheese Company curds to anybody and everybody in the Valley who can get there in person early on a Thursday afternoon.

(The cheese is still good for quite some time later, at least a week or so, assuming you can refrain from eating it faster. But it’s best right then and there, and served at room temperature.)